Jones & Hopkins: A Reversal of Fortunes
Many of you will have caught the latest instalment of the Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins public feud, this one played out over the airwaves on The Calvin Murphy Show, if you haven’t, here’s a link:
http://www.975theticket.com/TicketOnline/Podcasts/CalvinMurphyPodcasts2/tabid/807/Default.aspx
I enjoyed the verbal sparring between the pair (good old Calvin must have wondered if Santa had delivered early) and it left me pondering why the idea of a 40 year old tackling a guy four years his senior appealed to me so much?
B’Hop is looking to round out his career with a win which could be seen to add a bit of meat to his legacy, something he freely admits to being obsessed with and his key motivation in the interview. He’s therefore eyeing up another of those Ring magazine title belts, looking to either snaffle a new one from cruiser kingpin Tomasz Adamek or regain the one he used to wear around his waist at light heavy by taking on the winner of the Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson showdown.
The options available to the Philadelphian are seemingly limitless, even former welterweight Paul ‘The Punisher’ Williams has applied to enter the Hopkins sweepstakes. Jones meanwhile can only look on, his future one with a far less rosy complexion to it, unless he can broker a deal with the man he outpointed way, way back in 1993 in a fight tucked away beneath Riddick Bowe’s heavyweight title defence against Jesse Ferguson.
When Jones tallied that unanimous 116-112 decision win over Hopkins back in the day, it was he and not his old rival who held all the aces. The former amateur starlet was drawing comparisons to the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard, Hopkins meanwhile looked a good pro but not many who wandered off into the Washington night that evening would have predicted he would wind up the greater fighter, yet there is a valid argument he has achieved just that.
Friend of the site David M. Lee recently debated the relative merits of both guys in terms of their legacies, check out the article here:
It’s an interesting argument and one which probably also determines the best fighter of the post Chavez-Whitaker era. Do you like the freakish athletic gifts of Jones or the solid fundamentals of Hopkins? Multi-weight title exploits or multiple title defences at a single weight? Dynamism or longevity? The innovator or the throwback?
I for one would purchase Jones-Hopkins over either of the other fights in prospect. I’d fancy Hopkins heavily over Adamek or Dawson and whilst a Johnson fight would be tougher to call than many would predict, I think he wins that one also. With Jones however, I’m not so sure and that’s what makes it such an intriguing contest. With a burgeoning debate surrounding the placement of both fighters in the annals of history, it would surely garner plenty of copy, it might even help sway the argument and would put to bed one of boxing’s longest running soap operas.
The pair have flirted with a second meeting for years, sadly without ever managing to cross orbits and there’s a reason for this. On top of all the macho posturing over money and percentage purse splits, both fighters know that deep down, the other is the best fighter they’ve ever thrown hands against.
If the offer is more than mere smack talk, then Jones should bite The Executioner’s hand off and take the short end of the 60-40 split, it’s a far better exit strategy than tackling B and C level fighters on the road surely?
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